


Roses and Sonatas

by HalcyonEve



Category: Harvest Moon, Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Lost Love, Love Triangles, Multi, Reconciliation, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-15
Updated: 2015-05-15
Packaged: 2018-03-30 17:03:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3944659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HalcyonEve/pseuds/HalcyonEve
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A young farmer arrives to claim her inheritances in two feuding towns on opposite sides of a mountain. While settling into her new life, can she reconcile the rival villages? And when someone from her past finds her, will she be able to choose between rival loves?</p><p>Told primarily as a narrative from the main character's POV, the main character (Lillian in the game) has been renamed Alice here.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

“Did I ever tell you how I came to marry your grandpa?” Grandma Alice asked me as I set a cup of tea on the little table before her. I sat down in the other comfy old chair in her bay window, where she liked to sit and have her tea while she visited with company or just watched the birds flit around her little garden. She had told me about meeting Grandpa Cam of course, many times. But Grandpa had just died a little over a month ago, and she missed him a lot.

So picking up my tea cup, I replied, “Well, you’ve told me about how you met, but I’d love to hear about it again, if you wouldn’t mind.”

Grandma smiled at me, her eyes twinkling mischievously. She knew I was humoring her; Grandma was no fool. “Ah, but did I tell you that I almost didn’t marry Grandpa?”

I looked up at her in surprise, the cup frozen halfway to my lips. “What?” I exclaimed. I was a little shocked—she and Grandpa were so devoted to each other, I couldn’t imagine them not married. “What happened?” I asked eagerly, my interest finally piqued.

Grandma settled back in her chair, the smile on her lips crinkling her eyes as she prepared to begin her story. “Well, this is how the story went….”


	2. I.

My parents came from two small villages that were on opposite sides of a small, craggy mountain. Although the mountain was not very high, the terrain was too rough for most vehicles, so people either walked or rode horseback to get from one town to the other. A trip over the mountains took the best part of a day, so it wasn’t something many people did too often, except for the mailman. There had once been a tunnel through the mountain connecting the two towns, but legend had it that several generations ago, rivalry between the two towns had reached such an extreme that the local deity became annoyed at the constant bickering and collapsed the tunnel between. After that, the two towns continued their feud, but it was more or less restricted to the numerous cooking competitions held on the mountaintop between the two villages.

Well, my mother was from the south-eastern village, Konohana, which, due to its climate and the fertile lowlands around it, was focused on raising crops of all sorts. Nearly everyone in the village had at least a garden or some fruit trees, and the farmers there raised field crops or maintained orchards. My mother’s parents had a large farm just outside the town, with huge fields of crops and fruit trees. She was an only child, so she was expected to marry a local boy and take over the family farm.

My father, on the other hand, came from the rival village, Bluebell, on the northwestern side of the mountain. Because the soil there was poorer, it wasn’t as suitable for raising crops. But it made for fine pasture, so the ranchers there leaned more towards raising livestock than crops. My father’s parents had a large ranch just outside Bluebell with a huge pasture for livestock to graze in as well as a small space for a few crops, although theirs was the only ranch in town that raised a few crops in addition to livestock and poultry. Sheep and alpacas did especially well there, and their farm was well known for producing high-quality wool. As with my mother, Dad was an only child, and likewise his parents expected him to marry a local girl and take over the farm in due time.

Contact between the two villages was pretty limited due to the difficulty of traveling, but each season there were four cooking competitions held between the two rival towns. My parents became acquainted through these competitions. My mom was the prettiest girl and the best cook in Konohana, and my dad was the handsomest and strongest boy in Bluebell. So it’s not surprising that they noticed each other, but I don’t think anyone expected that they would fall in love with each other.

They’d secretly meet on the mountaintop as often as possible, using the excuse of foraging for wild mushrooms and berries or fishing as an excuse to get away. It was pretty romantic, really, but of course they were eventually discovered. Their families both had fits—the rivalry between the towns was at its worst just then—and demanded that they stop seeing each other. So they ran away together, leaving both towns behind.

My grandparents were furious at first, each side blaming the other. But eventually as time passed and they grew older and older, they began to regret their words and actions. They missed their children, and while still upset with them for leaving, they also regretted that they had not seen them for years, and had never seen me at all. They wouldn’t even have known of my existence if the cooking festival judge, Armand Gourmet of the famed Gourmet family, hadn’t spotted my parents at a restaurant. He recognized them and stopped to chat, then carried the news back to the villages at the next competition.

Both families were relieved to hear their children were doing well and pleased to hear they had a child, but they were also angry at being so completely shut out as to not even know of my birth. Afterwards they all altered their wills, leaving their farms to me rather than to my parents. By a strange coincidence, both of my grandfathers died within a year of each other, and both grandmothers died on the same day a few years later, when I was in my very early twenties.

By then, my parents had a large, successful farm of their own to manage, so they didn’t begrudge me my inheritance. I had a younger brother, whom my grandparents evidently didn’t even know existed, and whom my parents had been grooming to take over the farm some day. If anything, they were relieved that I now had land of my own, rather than having to split the family farm between my brother and me. So I packed up a few belongings in a cart, and with my surefooted mountain pony, Lady, to pull it, headed off to inspect my new farms. I would have to choose between them, since it wasn’t feasible to work both, at least not at first.

The road to the mountain from the town where I was raised approached from the southwest, then it split, with one branch leading to each village. As rough as it was to travel between the villages over the mountain, it was actually even longer to go around the mountain, which had a wide and rocky base. It was most of a day’s journey from the fork in the road to either village, but it took two days to travel between via the southern road. As I approached this fork, I loosened my hold on the reins, giving my pony the freedom to pick her route as I tried to decide which farm to visit first. Lost in thought, I barely noticed a fox chasing a rabbit across a clearing to the side of the path until suddenly the rabbit darted across the trail. The fox, in hot pursuit of its prey, dashed across right in the path of my pony, running practically under her nose. Startled, my pony reared up and bolted, careening over the uneven path. I flew from the cart and landed on the rocky ground, and everything went black.

The next thing I knew, I heard voices as from a distance, and I felt as though I was just waking from strange dreams. I was bruised and sore, but luckily no bones were broken. I found that the voices belonged to an older gentleman and a middle-aged woman. I couldn’t quite make out their words, but when I opened my eyes, they stopped talking and moved closer.

“Are you all right, miss?” the man asked.

“Is anything broken? Do you think you can stand?” the woman added.

I sat up and felt around the back of my head gingerly, then replied, “I _think_ I’m okay. I don’t think anything is broken, just bruised. I’ll try standing….” The gentleman held out his hand and helped me to my feet. I swayed a little, then my head cleared and I steadied myself. I looked around, but there was no sign of my pony or cart. “My pony! My cart! It had all my things in it!” I exclaimed in dismay.

“Not to worry, dear,” the woman assured me. “We spotted your pony just up the path. She appears unharmed, though she should probably be checked out.”

The man added, “As far as we can tell, nothing has been lost from the cart. At least, we didn’t see anything strewn about. The cart itself looks in need of a few repairs, though.”

I looked around and noticed that the sun was quite a bit lower in the sky than I last remembered. I wondered how long I’d been out. “Now why don’t you tell us about yourself while you rest a bit?” the woman said, looking at me curiously.

“First things first,” the man interrupted. “Let us introduce ourselves. I’m Rutger, and I’m the mayor of the village of Bluebell.”

“And I’m Ina, mayor of Konohana,” the woman added.

“Oh, what luck!” I exclaimed. “I’m Alice Tremayne, and I’ve just inherited farms in _both_ villages. I was coming to inspect them and to decide what to do with them.”

The mayors looked at each other, and I thought I sensed a brief flare of hostility. “So you must be Paul and Anna’s child. We’d heard that their parents had left everything to you,” Rutger said.

“And that you’d be coming out to visit both farms and villages soon,” Ina added. “Well, why don’t you tell us which town you’d like to live in and we’ll get you settled. Though of course, as a _real_ farmer, you’d be most interested in Konohana. It’s a traditional village styled after the homelands of our Asian and East European ancestors, and we have wonderful, fertile fields perfect for growing crops.”

“Oh, but of course as the scion of a long, proud line of ranchers, she’ll want to focus on livestock as any good rancher would. And Bluebell has the best animals by far—we _love_ animals in our village.”

Both mayors glared at each other—there was no mistaking the hostility this time—and then turned to me, waiting for me to choose between them. Still feeling woozy and shaky from my accident, I wavered, uncertain which farm I should start off with. Finally, I decided that it might be best to start with the ranch in Bluebell. I thought I’d give it a try there and see how it went—it was easier to move livestock than to move crops, if I decided that I preferred to live in Konohana after all.

So I stood up straight, and said “I think I’ll start out in Bluebell and see how it goes. Thank you both for your assistance.”

Rutger looked triumphant; Ina, evidently disappointed, replied “If that’s what you wish. But remember that you will always be welcome in Konohana should you change your mind.” With that, she turned on her heel and headed along the path towards her village.

Rutger walked me to his pony, and insisting that I ride, he helped me up and then went to fetch my pony and cart. When he returned a few minutes later, I saw that Lady appeared slightly lame in one foot and that my cart had some minor damage. Rutger walked alongside me as I rode his pony, leading Lady as he walked and talked, telling me about his village and the people that lived there. My head was in such a state, though, that I didn’t take in much of what he said.

He took me to my farm and helped me unload my few possessions. He set the bundles down and suggested I head straight to bed to rest and leave the cleaning and organizing for tomorrow. My head was throbbing by that point, so I was inclined to agree. He said he’d drop off my pony and cart at the pet shop, to have them looked over and tended to as needed. With that, he wished me a good night and left.

The furnishings in the house were old and simple—the same ones my grandparents had used. The bed was unmade, just a mattress and pillow on a frame and a woolen blanket folded up at the foot. I collapsed on the bare bed, pulled the blanket over me, and was asleep as soon as my aching head hit the pillow.

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Harvest Moon: Tale of Two Towns, and most locations and characters in this story belong to Natsume Inc. and MarvelousAQL Inc. The story's plot and some characters & locations are my own invention.


End file.
